ICED EARTH

ICED EARTH - Alive In Athens DVD Scheduled For An October Release


Amazon. 'com www.amazon.com ) have ICED EARTH's Alive In Athens DVD scheduled for an October 31st release. More details are expected soon.

The Alive In Athens DVD is expected to feature footage shot during the band's two night stand at Rodon Club in Athens, Greece in 1999. A two-CD live set under the same name was previously released.

Une édition du "Alive In Athens" existe en 3CD et cette édition vaut le détour.

BW&BK EXCLUSIVE: ICED EARTH's Jon Schaffer Disowns Live In Athens DVD


Speaking exclusively to BW&BK, ICED EARTH guitarist/founder Jon Schaffer talked about the widely rumored and highly sought after Live In Athens DVD that will reportedly be issued next month.

While meant to coincide with Century Media's 15th anniversary on American soil, the long release of these dormant tapes doesn't sit well with Schaffer.

“We had discussed it earlier and I told them, 'No, it’s an obvious money grab. The footage isn’t any good. If it was, we would have done it years ago.' There were only three cameras. There was no crane. One camera was set up at the back of the auditorium. One guy was walking around in front of the stage and another on the stage. We all agreed, back in the day, that that show doesn’t warrant a professional DVD release. It’s not right. I think the fans will feel ripped off. That’s what I’m concerned with.

They sent me the trailer and it was pretty cool, so I thought it might be OK. Then they sent me the DVD, their edit. It’s bad! The last thing I told them was, ‘We can go back and re-edit this thing, with me there, to make it the best it can be, or you guys can put this thing out and I’m going to tell people the truth and not support it at all.’ The point is, they swear they’re going to keep the price low and tell everyone it’s not a high quality DVD release. That it’s a documentary of a point in the band’s career. I understand that, but I want people to know that this wasn’t done with my supervision, or permission. This is them, taking tapes that were originally done for a German TV program (Viva).

The ‘bonus’ footage is a joke. Me walking around town talking about the Acropolis and metal. The backstage footage they have is literally them standing there as I’m tying my shoes and Matt (Barlow, vocals) is doing an interview. It’s nothing, just footage. Anything they can add, maybe a minute and half long. The tour of Athens is maybe two minutes. There’s also three songs missing, where they were changing tapes or batteries died.

The edit, in some spots, is really bad. All it would have taken is someone who knows the songs better. There are effects you can do to slow the film down, tricks to eat up a little time until you get another good shot. Though that takes time and money. If they had done some of that stuff, I wouldn’t feel that bad about it.

I have a lot of good memories from those days, when Matt and Brent (Smedley, drums) were in the band. We had a lot of fun. It was a tight band. It was a very cool period of history to remember. I just don’t want people to feel like they’re getting ripped off.

I told Century Media that the fans’ reaction is going to decide whether I pursue a lawsuit. They think they have the right to put it out and I say they don’t. I don’t want to drag it through a long, expensive legal process to have someone interpret it, but if I get reaction that people think it’s a rip-off, I will probably pursue it (legally). My thing has always been to give the people the best possible product for the money. It’s an integrity issue.”

A full interview with Mr. Schaffer will be in an upcoming issue of BW&BK, where he discusses the status of writing and recording two albums worth concept material, plans for a legitimate Iced Earth DVD and changes in his outlook on life/music industry, since the birth of his daughter.

BW&BK EXCLUSIVE - ICED EARTH Guitarist/Founder JON SCHAFFER Planning Musical Contribution To Diabetes Foundation Christmas Charity


BW&BK scribe Mark Gromen has checked in with the following exclusive report:

As if he doesn't have enough on his plate these days, between two CDs worth of material for the next Iced Earth outing (concept albums revolving around the Set character introduced back on the Something Wicked This Way Comes disc), battling Century Media over the Live In Athens DVD and worrying about the ongoing legal struggles of recent recruit Ernie Carletti, Jon Schaffer plans to lend his hand to a worthwhile local effort.

"There's a music store here (southern Indiana) called Guitars Works and they're putting together a CD to sell for the Diabetes Foundation. In the last year, any guitar players that come through for clinics, the manager has been asking them to record a Christmas
song to put on this release. He called me and said, 'It's coming up next month, but would you like to do something?' It's only three weeks away! I asked him to hold 'We Three Kings' for me. I've always liked that piece of music. I have to see if I can do it the way I envisioned it."

If his participation materializes, should increase the scope of the project, which is a bonus for the charity, at the right time of the year, holiday season.

"Alive in Athens" Dvd live d'Iced Earth enregistré en 1999 va sortir chez Century Media le 30 octobre.

track listing :

01. Intro (01:53)
02. Burning Times (03:32)
03. Vengeance is Mine (04:07)
04. Dark Saga (03:30)
05. Last Laugh (04:15)
06. Cast in Stone (05:53)
07. Last December (03:28)
08. Pure Evil (06:16)
09. Desert Rain (06:29)
10. Dante's Inferno (16:20)
11. The Hunter (03:58)
12. Melancholy (Holy Martyr) (05:04)
13. Angels Holocaust (04:38)
14. Stormrider (04:45)
15. The Path I Choose (05:39)
16. Watching Over Me (05:12)
17. Diary (05:57)
18. Blessed Are You (05:08)
19. When the Night Falls (07:21)
20. My Own Savior (03:47)
21. Travel in Stygian (09:17)
22. Violate (04:38)
23. Stand Alone (03:23)
24. Brainwashed (05:43)
25. Disciples of the Lie (04:10)
26. I Died For You (05:01)
27. Prophecy (06:10)
28. Birth of the Wicked (05:44)
29. The Coming Curse (08:08)
30. Epilog (02:36)

Bonus:
31. Iced Earth Backstage (04:21)
32. Jon Schaffer in Athens (03:26)

ICED EARTH - Bassist Search Continues

Toiling on a pair of thematically linked CDs, ICED EARTH founder/guitarist Jon Schafferrecently reported that Bobby Jarzombek will not be involved with either the recording or touring of the concept albums, and former drummer Brent Smedley will rejoin the band.

"He said he can't commit because of his touring schedule with SEBASTIAN BACH. Apparently they may open for GN'R in the States. I told him that if he was going to do the Iced Earth record, he had to do the tours as well."

"I'm auditioning a very killer bass player and the cool thing is, he's from Indy. We'll see, I've had bucket loads of CDs and demos come in but I can't believe what I hear anymore (thanks to Pro Tools and good engineers) so the only real way to know is to analyze them under the microscope in person."

Watch for a full-length Iced Earth feature in BW&BK #101.

ICED EARTH - New Guitarist Found

ICED EARTH founder/guitarist Jon Schaffer has issued the following update on his search for a new guitarist:

"Greetings,

The new Iced Earth guitar player is an absolutely fantastic player from the UK named Tim Mills. Tim is the owner/founder/visionary of Bare Knuckle Pickups, which is an incredible company providing state of the art handwound pickups from England, which is how I met him. I highly recommend any and all serious players to check out his website and try a few of his p/ups, they absolutely rule. http://www.bareknucklepickups.co.uk/

As for his playing, it's awesome, very melodic, very tasty and he has great original ideas and songwriting abilities as well. He's here now and we're really inspiring each other and coming up with some great parts together. It's been a very long time since I've felt this kind of chemistry and I'm very psyched about it. It's an ingredient that's been missing for a very long time, so it should bring some very cool results.

It's a good thing I always call Tim Owens 'T'; that will help with the two guys in the band named Tim factor........ ;-)

There's more good news coming soon!"

Jon Schaffer

The search for a new guitarist began last month when Iced Earth axe Ernie Carletti was arrested on charges of rape.

attention ça cartonne, le nouveau DVD live in athens, sorti depuis hier.

http://www2.centurymedia.com/splash/iced_earth.aspx?default_id_country=4

Review: ICED EARTH - Live In Athens DVD; Featuring Commentary By Jon Schaffer

Special review/report by Mark Gromen:

Like an Olympic figure skating judge, I’m forced to give this two separate marks: one for artistic impression, the other, technical merit. Despite the much ballyhooed omission of three songs from the triple CD set, this is eagerly anticipated by fans, although the running order is significantly different from the previously released audio portion. Interesting to see how a live show is dissected and re-assembled in another order, for maximum effect. Regardless, viewing 2:40 of vintage Iced Earth material, uninterrupted, is a godsend, a veritable fanboy 9.5 or 10. Almost forgot how good some of these older tunes sound live, like ‘Last December’, ‘Brainwashed’, ‘Angels Holocaust’ (still my all-time fave! Had me madly headbanging and air guitar/drumming as I watched) and ‘The Path I Choose’. On technical merit though, is where Jon Schaffer has had reservations about the performance seeing the light of day. Not because of any inherent flaws in the playing (only he can nitpick that point with any certainty), but the lack of production values within the filming, as it was never intended to be anything more than a couple of songs for German television. “I was pissed about the way (the label) made it seem like they ‘ran across this lost footage’ blah, blah,” contends colour commentator Schaffer. “That's total horseshit. We knew those tapes were there all along. I hosted the show for Christ's sake. There are plenty of edits that could have made it better but it is what it is. I tried numerous times to get Century to pay for a real film crew, so we could do a proper DVD, but they wouldn't. Of course the DVD market has exploded since then. Century Media has never had a vision and never will under the leadership they have. I think it says something about their catalog sales if they have to keep putting out Iced Earth product.”

Diehards buy inferior quality bootlegs, both audio and visual. Rest assured, this is a couple of steps above that (sounds great, but anyone owning the CDs already knows that). However, there are glitches, including cobbling together two performances to make it look like one night. During ‘Stormrider’, we “hear” Matt Barlow exhorting the crowd, but onscreen he’s backstage and remains so until the end of the song! There’s also a problem synching Schaffer’s vocals to the visuals. “Cutting both nights into one set was stupid,” contends Schaffer. Effects like double exposure, slo-mo and horizontally split screens are employed sporadically, but overall, the small stage was not lit properly for filming a DVD. At times, the band is too dark, others, particularly when smoke fills the stage, or red lights dominate, the faces are washed out. This is most noticeable/disturbing during ‘Dark Saga’, ‘Pure Evil’, ‘The Hunter’ (where Barlow is briefly shot in triplicate) and ‘Disciples Of The Lie’. Even with sufficient lighting, the film has a flat, not glossy, texture. Again, these are more stylistic points than content, but noticeable, especially in today’s hi-def, DVD flooded market. It’s well documented that only three cameras were employed, as such they cover a remarkable amount of ground, although lots of footage from beside or behind the band. Some of Barlow’s between song raps to the crowd (deleted on CD) are recorded only through the camcorders, a noticeable drop off in audio quality until the music resumes. As with far too many videographers (i.e. hired hands, not necessarily fans of the music), during guitar breaks and/or solos, they focus on someone other than the guitarist! On ‘Travel In Stygian’, amongst others, as Barlow goes for an extended scream, we get a shot of tattooed bassist James MacDonough Why? Would you focus on the wide receiver on a running play? “All the concerns you listed have merit,” offers the guitarist.

I surmise Schaffer is most opposed to having the mystique shattered. In the years since its release, people have conjured up their own image of what Alive In Athens looked like and to see the truth is akin to looking behind the curtain in the Wizard Of Oz: the "smallness" of it all, a lack of props (apart from the acoustic guitar during ‘Watching Over Me’), small stage/club, etc. There's nothing wrong with being at a certain point in one's career, but after all these years of listening and admiring, people have their own "vision" and the truth will undoubtedly alter that. Reliving/reviving the past also hampers the current incarnation, by prolonging or seemingly validating the "Barlow is better than Ripper" mentality.

“As far as the Barlow/Owens comparison,” answers Schaffer, “I've heard the same shit every time there's been a singer change, and at the end of the day it's had little or no effect on the band’s sales. That's just a fact. The Burnt Offerings period was the only setback in sales, and it didn't take long to get our respect back. Some people get very attached to certain members, which is understandable. Fortunately, the number of people that really geek over this kind of stuff is very small. Of course they ALL have a voice in the internet age, but I have to wonder what kind of person has the time to sit around and obsess over such things. The fact is that Matt developed into a great frontman, in my opinion one of the best to ever grace the metal genre. Another fact is that he's gone in another direction in his life and won't be coming back to Iced Earth. The people that can't accept this should move on and find another band to obsess about, or just listen to the old stuff. There's plenty out there. Tim (Ripper Owens) is the singer in Iced Earth now and I'm damn proud to have him in the band. CM releasing this DVD changes absolutely nothing about where the future of where Iced Earth is headed. It's just a cheap attempt to capitalize on our continued success. That's just the plain and simple truth of it all. Something Wicked is truly coming your way and regardless of what era of Iced Earth the fans are into, this is going to be the pinnacle of everything that's been done to date. That's just another plain and simple fact. I expect the true fans that have been by our side for the last 16 plus years, and those that have come on board since, will be very, very pleased.”

Some of the clearest footage of Matt Barlow can be found in ‘Dante’s Inferno’, the ballady moments of ‘Melancholy’ and ‘Blessed Are You’. Cute little Iron Maiden flourish to close ‘Violate’, which ends the set, prior to returning for a seven song encore. Drummer Brent Smedley (recently announced as having reunited with Iced Earth) utilizes headphones, playing to a click track on the pre-recorded enhanced Dark Saga material. De rigeur these days, in ’99 it was something of an anomaly for metal bands. The accompanying booklet is a reprint of the original CD artwork, complete with photos lifted from video. Pet peeve, why not spring for a couple high quality original pictures, rather than copy dark, dreary, blurred or under-developed stills? The so-called bonus footage amounts to four minutes of eavesdropping on snippets of pre-show, backstage conversations and photo sessions, plus a 3 ½ minute segment with Schaffer playing tour guide throughout Athens. Bittersweet moment as his wife, mother and recently deceased father comment briefly.
Interesting tidbit, in his bonus monologue he claims 34-35 songs were to be recorded. With 28 songs on DVD, minus the trio of CD tunes resulting from dead batteries, that leaves a couple of mystery outtakes. What gives? “The only song that wasn't included on the CD was ‘Colors’,” contends Schaffer. “That was purely a mistake on my end. Somehow it got lost in the shuffle, from mixing and mastering to manufacturing. Though it did end up as a bonus track on a few releases, after the fact. As far as the sets go, the plan was to record two entirely different sets each night, with the exception of the big sing-alongs, like ‘Melancholy’, ‘Watching Over Me’, ‘I Died For You’ and ‘Iced Earth’. I think those were the only four songs we were doing both nights. We figured we would take the best take of those particular performances. If I remember correctly we did re-record ‘Pure Evil’ and ‘Stormrider’ because fans couldn't get in and were pissed off. They unplugged the power to the recording truck outside the venue, which was where Jim (Morris) was at. I don't know if they were really aware of what they were doing, but it did happen. He told us after the first night’s gig that the power went down and we would have to redo those songs if we wanted them on the CD. After the second time, he went ballistic and finally got them to setup security around the truck. Anyway, I'm pretty sure those were the two songs we ended up adding into the set the next night.”

Overall, given the jigsaw puzzle endeavor of reassembling/matching the existing footage to the audio, it’s a worthwhile historical document, just not completely up to today’s standards. Then again, that’s probably not why most people will buy it. Enjoy! Grade-wise, well, artistic impression: [9.5], technical merit: [7], averaging out to about…
Mark Gromen [8]

D'après Jon SCHAFFER, deux CD seraient en préparation : un prévu en septembre/octobre 2007 et un en Janvier 2008.
Il s'agirait d'une suite au Somthing Wicked This Way Comes
Plus d'info ci-joint :

http://www.icedearth.com/wwwbb_msg.php?m=28

Ah les suites des albums ayant bien vendus...
Operation: Mindcrime II, Keeper of the seven Keys-The Legacy...

Selling is my business... and business is good !!

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Enfin, promis juré, nous ne sommes pas un groupe commercial...
On sort des disques pour que personne ne les achète...

ICED EARTH Guitarist/Founder JON SCHAFFER Issues Something Wicked Trilogy Update, Working Song Titles Revealed

ICED EARTH guitarist Jon Schaffer has checked in with the following update:

"Hello All,

Again I have to apologize for the delay in updates. I've been extremely busy with writing and preproduction for the new IE CD's.

I also lost the one person that was my true mentor and inspiration throughout my life, which was very difficult. My Father, Tom Schaffer, died unexpectedly of a massive stroke in October. He was 67, and died two weeks before his 68th birthday. It's hard to imagine what my life would have been like without my Dad's influence. I would not be who I am today, that's for sure.

Fortunately, he was able to travel with the band a few times, and he really enjoyed meeting and talking with the fans. He was there for the Alive In Athens recording and was dubbed Papa Earth by some of the fans in Greece. I will miss him very much.

Obviously, this had a huge impact on me and brought the writing to a halt for about a month.

I'm back on track and we are going to start recording on February 1st. We will be releasing a single/EP in June '07 that will feature the Something Wicked trilogy re-recorded and a track that will be an alternate edit of a song that will be on Something Wicked Part 2 that now has a working title of Come What May. The label was wanting me to do something with the original trilogy to reintroduce the story. So, what we have in store for you is very cool. You will hear 'Prophecy', 'Birth of the Wicked', and 'The Coming Curse' in a new way that will be a very killer way to kick off this massive epic.

I don't want to give you any details to spoil the surprise, but trust me, it's going to be awesome.

Something Wicked (Part 1) will be released in the September/October '07 time frame and Part 2 will follow in January/February '08.

This is by far the most epic task I've ever taken on as a songwriter and I really feel like it will be worth all the sacrifice when it's finished. I've been working nonstop for over a year now and it's coming together in a very special way. I've just about finished all the musical arrangements and am now focusing on writing the lyrics/vocal melodies. I'm in the final stretch now........

Tim Mills has contributed a few really cool pieces of music and has shown a real interest in the whole Something Wicked story, and a real passion for being involved with the band. All this while owning and operating his own company (Bare Knuckle Pickups). I'm impressed, it's a rare quality, believe me.

Also, the bass player on the next record is a local boy from Indianapolis whose name is James "Bo" Wallace. Bo is a killer player and a great personality. I went to see him perform several months ago and was impressed with his abilities, energy and passion. He played with Ma Kelley for many years and released several records on a few different independent labels. Without a doubt, Bo is a great bass player and I'm happy to have him working with Iced Earth.

Here's a list of working titles for the upcoming epic. There will likely be changes but this gives you an idea of where things are going.

Something Wicked - Part 1:
'Overture',
'Something Wicked (Part 1)',
'Invasion',
'Man's Motivation',
'The Setian Massacre',
'Ghost Dance Ritual',
'Reflections',
'Ten Thousand Strong',
'Execution',
'Order Of The Rose',
'The Clouding',
'Infiltrate And Assimilate',
'Retribution From The Shadows',
'Something Wicked (Part 2)',
'The Domino Decree',
'The Division of Religion (Man Needs God)',
'Novo Ordo Seclorum (Cycle Of A New Age)'.

Something Wicked - Part 2:
'The Sacred Flames',
'Behold The Wicked Child',
'Minions Of The Watch',
'A Gift Or A Curse?',
'I Walk Among You',
'My Burden, My Honor',
'Ancient Rage Of The High Priest',
'A Gathering Threat',
'Time Marches On',
'Sacrificial Kingdoms',
'Something Wicked (Part 3)',
'Divide Devour',
'Conspiracy / A Charge To Keep',
'Come What May (Mankind Is Lost)'.